Ishtar
by Bloominator
Summary: A tale about an orphan named Alice who lives with her care taker since birth. Her town gets raided years later and everything she's lived up to and known are burnt into ash. War between Vedia and Chryll are broad.
1. Will

Epilogue:

Soo this is probably one of my first stories in a long long time. So there's possibly a lot of imperfections because I type this in Notepad instead of the Word program but I tried correcting the ones I caught so yeah, laugh out loud. This story was typed because a friend wanted me to type a story for and well here it is! :D Feed back, rates, reviews are beyond welcome whether it's positive or negative comments I'll be sure to read them all ]  
Any who, hope you enjoy this first chapter. More to come soon hopefully.

_For Ara;_

**Will**

Once upon a time, there were three classes of society. With one another they made the community of their town harmonious, each party was just as important as the other. The three classes of this society were the peasants, aristocrats, and, of course,  
the nobles. The peasants were the lowest as ranks could be, they work hard, earn little but enough to survive with meager supplies.  
Aristocrats are in the middle, they were able to balance the difference between the rich and the poor. Some may work harder than others yet the aristocrats just balance the poor to the wealthy. Nobles consisted of Kings, queens, and royalty of all kinds.

One day in the land of Vedia at the town of Will, a mother had given birth to a brand new baby. It's was during autmn at a chilly morning. The mother had pushed until the child had slipped out. As the child did so, the mother was gasping for her breath. "Congratulations, Cal, it's a girl!" The local doctor exclaimed as he cleaned the newborn up. The nurses wrapped the baby in a blanket of pale blue cloth and handed the child to her mother, Cal. With a big and wide grin, Cal accepted the baby and held her into her arms. The doctor and nurses silently spectated in awe. It was a brief moment that had seem to last for hours. Slowly, the exhausted mother's eyes closed. Her hands cold with her cherry lips pale with a heart that can no longer beat anymore. Mother has gone.

Although everyone was in peace perhaps just a moment ago, all the life in the room began to frown and even weep. The doctor gently grabbed the child from her mother. "Should we send her to the orphanage?" asked a nurse. The doctor remained silent and shook his head. "Her name shall be Alice. I will be her guardian," the doctor finally said. From then on, she was years passed by from summer to winter, Alice has learned plenty by the knowledge of a doctor. She's grown older and became mature understanding the more opportunities and meanings to life. She may have learned plenty from the hospital but she still has more to know. Everyday when she was able to, ever since she was old enough to, she would volunteer at the same hospital where she had been given life and help those in need. A good samaritan she was.

On a cold empty morning, just after the first crack of dawn, the large town bell had rung from the tall towers of churches and cathedrals as a wake up call. Slowly Alice's eyes opened, blinking with her long lashes. She say up straight on her bed stretching and yawning ready for another day of work again, her daily routine. She got dressed by slipping herself into a full dress of faded green that ended to her knees. She slipped her small feet into her brown loose boots. She combed her long brown hair brown hair and tied it low near to her left shoulder. As Alice washed up, she prepared breakfast for her and the doctor, her foster father. On the small, round, wooden table she laid a plate of butter, a fresh loaf of bread she had just baked, some smoked ham, and refreshing tea to wash it all down with. As the doctor and Alice ate breakfast, they had small conversations and ate in silence. Neither of the two would speak out of their place unless it was needed to. After breakfast, Alice would clean up then both would head for work at the local hospital. Al reached for her red cloak and swung it over her with the hood over her head. The doctor reached for his dark brown overcoat. The two stepped out of the house, locked the door and left.

Outside on the streets of the town were many many soldiers marching through. "Father, what is this?" asked Alice. The doctor turned his head and replied,  
"These are the young men who have just returned from the war and survived." Both remained quiet and resumed their walk to the the hospital. As they came closer to their destination, the more men and soldiers they saw. Seems like they needed medical attention. Inside the hospital were some sights Alice had never seen before. Men who were a limb short, a missing leg, a missing arm, horribly punctured organs, and shattered bones. An obvious guess, the hospital was very busy that day. Not even half the fighters were treated that day. Poor Alice had to run back and forth giving and receiving new things to keep herself occupied. During noon, the workers have decided to give Alice a turn for a short break. She joined up with her best friend, Shae, one of the nurses. Shae was more older, experienced, and straight foward than Alice. Shae had long light brown hair braided to the very end of her back, she was physically strong, and tall. Shae and Alice could pass as sisters. They went to grab some food at the kitchen. After lunch, the day went on into the night. The night was quite awkward to bear. It was still as busy as it was during the day, things just moved a whole lot slower. And everynow and then, Al could look around and see the younger nurses sneak into an empty room with one of the men. 'Just ignore it,' Al thought.

"Al? Alice, there you are." She turned around.  
"Yes, Ma'am?" Alice said to the head nurse, Kol.  
"It's time for supper, would you please help the other nurses serve the men their meals? We are a bit short on hands tonight," Kol said.  
"Oh, of course," Al said nodding.  
Walking to the kitchen, one of the swordsman came up to Alice. "Excuse me, Nurse?" he said. Al tilted her head. "I'm free and not doing anything and I really appreciate how the workers here have treated us. May I be of any assistance?" Al nodded her head with a small smile and lead him into the kitchen. "Please help us serve your friends supper?" Al said.  
"Got it!" said the youthful swordsman.

The two would walk together and talk as they served the fighters their dinner. Some of the soldiers looked at the swordsman quite weird with strange expressions on their faces. As the last bowl was served and the last plate of meat and bread was cleaned off, Al took a quick bow to the swordsman. "Thank you for your help,  
Sir," she thanked. "Sure not a problem," he replied with a smile. As she was about to walk away and resume her duties, the swordsman spoke put once more.  
"Oh wait, sorry but I didn't catch your name," he said. "I'm Tril Howenguard. You can call me Tril"  
"Nice to meet you, Sir Tril. My name is Alice Boteau," she answered.  
"Alice!" shouted Kol quickly walking towards young Al.  
"Yes, Ma'am"  
"Could you cross the river bridge at the outskirts of town east from here and collect us some wild berries? We're short on it for medicine ingredients"  
Al nodded.  
"Young man are busy?" Kol asked looking at Tril.  
"Nope," he answered.  
"Could you escort the little lady here to her way? It's getting late and dangerous," Kol said.  
"Sure thing, Ma'am, it'd be a great way to thank you all for helping my friends and I all day," Tril said.  
"Thank you both. And please becareful you two"  
Tril and Al nodded.

On their way to grab some wild berries, Alice lead the way from east of the hospital, across and over the bridge. "What are the berries that are needed to be collected, Al?" asked Tril. "They are a dark shade of red. Small and round, almost like raspberries. We need to collect enough to fill this basket here," she said pointing at the basket around her arm. For half an hour they walked til they saw what they have been searching for. Looking around, Tril could see why it may be dangerous. They were at the shallow part of the woods and it was dark. Who knows what beast could jump out from the bushes and attack. Perhaps an hour or less have passed until the basket was full of those dark wild berries. "Okay, ready to head back?" asked Al. Tril nodded. On their way back, they spoke this time about travel.  
Whether it was either going to certain places or seeing the most vastful views. On the high bridge they could smell the coarse scent of smoke. Up ahead they saw a large fire where the town stood. In front of their eyes laid Will buried in flames.


	2. Wander

**Wander**

As Al and Tril watched the town burn in flames they spotted men on black horses approach. Tril threw Al and himself into a bush behind a tree. They lay low as the horsemen quickly rode of passed them. When the riders were out of site, Tril stood up and brushed himself and pulled Al up by the arm. Speechlessly, Al stared at Tril. "C'mon, let's go see what happened," he said quietly. The two walked around the outskirts of the town of Will until the flames ceased and calmed down. The streets carried burnt corpses of the townspeople, homes were raided, and the night sky descended black snow from the fires.

"It's very hot here, be careful, alright?" Tril said as he placed a red cloak over Al. Al nodded and bent over to her foot where she had felt something hard she had stepped on. "What is it?" asked Tril as he simply watched. She stepped back and picked up a small oval gem. In her hands, she stood up and showed Tril. He carefully picked it up and observed it.

"It's…malachite," Tril said and gave back the gem to Al.

"Pardon?" Al said.

"Malachite. It's… a common gemstone in the northern lands from here."

"Who would be carrying malachite around? The local jeweler only crafts pyrite for gemstones… unless the ones with the malachite were…"

"Hey, don't start jumping into conclusions yet, there's no proof that the northerners could've done this to this town. Let's get outta here."

They walked out east of the ruins of Will and leaned back lofty trees and left out deep sighs. "Hmm… Hey look at that," Tril said and pointed out footprints on the eastern trail. Al tilted her head and followed the footprints. Tril followed as well. They followed traced the foot steps for miles until faded away and ended, but the steps never changed direction, and thus they continued going straight not knowing what could have been nothing ahead of them. It was barely dusk and the two were exhausted. "We're near a small outpost, Al. Just a little further," Tril said.

When the two made it to the outpost, Tril headed to the first inn he found. They entered the inn and Tril walked up to the clerk and laid his badge on the table. "Two rooms, please?" Tril asked. "Yes'sir, rooms 054 and 078 are yours," said the clerk handing his badge back. "Thank you, Ma'am. Al, c'mon, I'll take you to your room and you can sleep as much as you want now, Tril said with a smile. He led Al to the door of her room and handed her they keys.

"You'll be fine, right? I'll be in room 078, just up the stairs."

"This all isn't necessary," she mumbled.

"Eh…sleep well," he said walking away smiling still.

Alice opened her door and locked it. She went to the wash room to wash herself up and headed to the bedroom afterwards. The bed spread was thickly woven and smooth; the blankets were cotton made and soft, and the bed was high and well sprung. She wore spare pajamas in the room closet and climbed into bed and slept like a child. As her eyes shut, it was as if time had frozen until she had regained her conscience.

Hours flew by when Alice awoke again. She yawned and stretched before she hopped off the bed. She looked at the clock. 11:30AM. Al fixed her self up and opened her door to go see Tril. On her doorstep she found a box for her. She opened the box and inside sat new set of clothes and note. Picking up the note, it read:

Dear Al,

Did you have a good sleep? As for me, I did of course, any who, I'll be running some errands in the outpost now. I suppose I'll be back later at noon. Do as you like and enjoy yourself. P.S 'Hope you like the clothes 

Sincerely,

Tril

Alice picked up the clothes in the box and held it out. It was a grey dress with shades of blue. Beneath the dress were short black boots. She changed into the dress and left the inn to look around the area. After dowsing and reading some signs, she figured the idea that they were east of Will in a small outpost of the Vedian Kingdom. She went to the marketplace where it was lively and loud. She saw stands of people selling fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat. Passing a small bakery, she could taste the aroma that flew in the atmosphere as she simply walked by. She continued through the marketplace towards the jeweler of the outpost.


End file.
